Swiss Grand Prix Music 2025 goes to Sylvie Courvoisier
The pianist and composer Sylvie Courvoisier has been awarded the Swiss Grand Prix Music 2025, endowed with 100,000 francs by the Federal Office of Culture.
Sylvie Courvoisier, born in Lausanne in 1968, is "one of the most important pianists and composers on the contemporary jazz scene", writes the Federal Office of Culture (FOC). She has lived in New York since 1998. Courvoisier has created a hybrid world of jazz, contemporary music and improvisation and regularly collaborates with greats such as John Zorn, Mark Feldman, Yusef Lateef, Ikue Mori, Joey Baron and Evan Parker. Her playing style is inspired by Cecil Taylor and Thelonious Monk as well as the composers György Ligeti and Olivier Messiaen. Following the release of her second solo album To Be Other-Wise (Intakt Records, 2024) and the atmospheric album Chimaera (Intakt Records, 2023) will release the album Angel Falls with Wadada Leo Smith (Intakt Records, 2025).
Swiss Music Prizes, each worth CHF 40,000, go to harpist Julie Campiche, cellist Thomas Demenga, conductor Titus Engel, composer Jannik Giger, experimental musician Charlotte Hug Raschèr, music poet Silvio Brunner and the two music groups Vox Blenii and Vent Negru. Special prizes (CHF 25,000 each) were awarded to the Facciamo la Corte! festival in the Ticino village of Muzzano, the Insub Meta Orchestra and the global network Norient.
The Swiss Music Awards have been in existence since 2014, recognizing outstanding works or individual achievements and reflecting musical creation in Switzerland. On behalf of the Federal Office of Culture, around ten experts from all parts of the country and from various musical disciplines recommend around sixty nominees for the Swiss Music Awards each year. At the beginning of the following year, the seven members of the Federal Jury for Music select eleven prizewinners from the recommendations.
